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THK STOKY ()F KALORAMA 



Hv MRS. CORKA HA(( )X-F(.)STKK 



[Reprinted JVoiu the Recohus ok thk L"(>Li;MiiiA >[jsTi)r{icAi> Society, 
Washington, I). C Vol. 13, 1910.] 



[Reprinted from Records of thk ConMnrA Historkai. Suciktv, 
Vol. XIII., IQIOI 



THE STOKY OF KALOEAMA.* 

By MRS. COERA BACON-FOSTER. 
(Read before the Society, April 13, 1909.) 

Our theme tonight is of a famous old iiome in the 
District of which only the melody of the name lingers. 

The governments of France and Germany have 
recently acquired portions of beautiful Kalorama 
Heights; doubtless two elegant foreign mansions will 
be added to the number of handsome residences that 
have given to this vicinity the distinction of being the 
palace end of town. 

This is hardly a new experience for Kalorama ; the 
few grand old oaks that have been spared by the ruth- 
less, leveling work of army and civilian engineers 
doubtless congratulate themselves upon the return of 
the old days of social supremacy, when the belles and 
beaux of a century ago sauntered along the shaded 
walks, and haughty diplomats sought secluded arbors 
for discussion of the latest news from the war in 
Europe or the discomforts of life in Washington. 

This charming property, still shown on city maps 
by faint, dotted lines, was a portion of the large Hol- 
mead estate and known as ^'Rock Hill." The original 
residence was built about 1750— it is claimed of Eng- 
lish brick!— it is also claimed that the bill of lading 
therefor is among the title papers! So generously 

* In the preparation of this paper T have drawn largely upon the 
"Life and Letters of Joel Barlow," liy Charles Burr Todd, and contem- 
porary writings. 

I wish also to express my gratitude for the assistance so generously 
and courteously given nie by nioinbors of the families so long associated 
with the life of Kalorama. 

98 



99 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

were these nnported brick used that tlie walls were of 
thickness and strength to withstand fire and tempest 
for one hundred and fifty years. 

In 1794 the house with about forty acres was bought 
and occupied by Gustavus Scott from Dorchester 
County, Marj'land. He had been a prominent lawyer 
there and a politician. He was one of the original pro- 
moters of the Potomac Company scheme for improve- 
ment of the river navigation— held eleven shares of the 
stock ; he secured the passage of a bill in the Maryland 
Legislature for monopoly in steam navigation in the 
state to James Rumsey; he was a heavy investor in 
''Federal City" lots; he was appointed one of the early 
commissioners of the District and was made superin- 
tendent of public works; when Maryland made her 
third loan to the impecunious national government, his 
was one of the three personal endorsements required 
upon the bonds. President Washington wrote to 
Tobias Lear from Philadelphia, August 28, 1794: 
" . . . j\rr. Scott (at present of Baltimore) a gentle- 
man eminent in the profession of law, a man of char- 
acter & fortune, & one who has the welfare of the New 
City much at heart— has been applied to & accepted the 
appointed trust (as commissioner)." It was doubt- 
less in compliance with the President's request that be 
should reside in the District that he secured the Rock 
Hill residence. 

He seems to have inherited some of his ancestral 
Scotch thrift, as he used the rejected keystone of the 
new K Street bridge for a kitchen door step on which 
for many years his name was perpetuated in an in- 
scription—gradually vanishing under the tread of 
many feet. 

In the Scott home hospitality held full sway— it was 

&oiu:co unJtnovTn 
f^EB 19 1918 



Bacon-Foster: The Story of Kolonnna. lOO 

one of the fine conntiy places frequented by the George 
Town gentry. 

Gustavus Scott was the grandfather of Admiral 
Gustavus Hall Scott, long a resident of Washington, 
and a relative of Mrs. Richard Townsend. 

His patriotic investments were evidently unfortunate 
ones for him, as we learn from a letter addressed to 
Joel Barlow in Paris by President Jefferson, dated 
May 3, 1802, in which Barlow is urged to return to 
America ; ' ' ... There is a most lovely seat adjoining 
this city— on a high hill, commanding a most extensive 
view of the Potomac— now for sale. A superb house, 
gardens, etc., with thirty or forty acres of ground. It 
will be sold under circumstances of distress, and will 
probably go for the half of what it has cost. It was 
built by Gustavus Scott, who is dead— a bankrupt." 

It was however then bought by William Augustine 
Washington who remodeled the old mansion and added 
the handsome east wing containing the drawing rooms 
and banquet hall— without which no mansion of the 
time was complete. This owner greatly enlarged the 
former social circle which now embraced Alexandria 
and nearby Virginia plantations. But Washington 
was thrifty too and accepted Joel Barlow's liberal offer 
of $14,000 for the place in 1807. 

So about one hundred years ago workmen again ap- 
peared upon the scene and under the direction of the 
new owner with many suggestions from Robert Fulton 
and architect Latrobe carpenters and brick-masons were 
soon tearing away and remodeling; walks and drives 
were cut and leveled. With considerable ceremony one 
day in March there was a notable planting of two Eng- 
lish elms by Barlow and Fulton; these trees attained 
great size and were only recently sacrificed to the lower 
grade of Twenty-third Street. Pi'csidcnt Jefforson 



lOi liiconls of the Columbia Historical Societij. 

rode out frecjueiitly and gave much advice ou the sub- 
jects of fruit culture and gardening, in which he con- 
sidered himself adept. 

Often it was observed Mr. Barlow and the younger 
Fulton would spend a morning on the bank of the bor- 
dering Eock Creek. Tradition says that the model of 
the first successful steamboat, the "Clermont," was 
here perfected— Fulton using the small model engine 
he had brought from London. 

The pretty Greek lodge at the entrance gate was 
designed by Latrobe from an Ionian temple, the sum- 
mer house on the brow of the hill (the present inter- 
section of Twenty-fourth and U Streets) by Fulton. 

In March, 1807, the day after the adjournment of 
Congress, died Senator Abraham Baldwin, the eldest 
brother of Mrs. Barlow and a life-long friend of her 
husband. His remains were the first to repose in the 
Kalorama tomb; the first interment had been in Rock 
Creek Church yard beside his colleague General Jack- 
son of Georgia. Baldwin had been a member of the 
national Constitutional Convention whose vote for the 
opposition on equal representation of states held the 
convention from going to pieces before having accom- 
plished its purpose. It is claimed that the original 
draft of the United States Constitution was found 
among his papers. 

In the summer of 1807 Fulton went to New York to 
superintend the construction of his steamboat; in Au- 
gust a letter was received from him with the tidings of 
the success of the trial trip to Albany. A pretty inci- 
dent of this trial trip was the announcement en route 
of his engagement to the beautiful and charming cousin 
of his patron. Chancellor Livingston. 

Wlien the improvements on the place had l)een com- 
pleted the impatient owners furnished the mansion in 



Bacon-Foster: The Story of Kalorama. 102 

the simple and formal taste of the period, placed the 
rare bric-a-brac and paintings brought from the Paris 
home and installed the library— probably the finest col- 
lection of literature then in America. To the house- 
warming in the winter probably went President Jeffer- 
son, Secretar>^ of State Madison and his ever-charming 
wife, the French minister General Turreau, re- 
splendent as became a Marshal of the First Empire, 
the amiable Erskine from Great Britain with his wife, 
nee Fanny Cadwallader of Philadelphia, the Secretary 
of the Treasury and Mrs. Gallatin, Capt. Thomas Law 
with a poem for the happy occasion, Mr. and Mrs. 
Smith, who unfortunately for us did not report the 
toasts and costumes for the next issue of the Intel- 
ligencer, Gen. and Mrs. Van Ness, Gen. and Mrs. Mason 
from the ''Island," Capt. and Mrs. Tingey from the 
Navy Yard, Dr. and Mrs. Thornton— in fact all the 
fashion of George Town and Washington— the army and 
navy officers in full uniform, the justices and congress- 
men—probably though some of the Federalists may 
have held aloof as Joel Barlow was chief among Re- 
publicans ; today we cannot understand the rigidity of 
party lines during the Jefferson and Madison admin- 
istrations, when politics divided even society into 
hostile camps; but it was a notable entertainment and 
long remembered. 

At the solicitation of President Jefferson Joel Bar- 
low, the most famous American in Europe, an adopted 
citizen of republican France— an honor shared only by 
Washington and Hamilton— "Poet, Statesman and Phi- 
losopher"— had returned to America to write a history 
of the United States from contemporary sources and in 
sympathy with the policy of the Republican party, he 
and his amiable, brilliant wife came to make a home 
once more among their countrvmen. 



I03 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

Let us (jiiote from a letter written by Thomas Jeffer- 
son: 

"WAsmNGTON, May 3, 1802.— To Joel Barlow in Paris; — 

"Dear Sir; — Mr. Madison and myself have cut out a piece 
of work for you, which is to write the history of the United 
States from the close of the war downward. We are rich our- 
selves in materials and can open all the public archives to you, 
but your residence here is essential, because a great deal of 
the knowledge of things is uot on paper, but only within our- 
selves for verbal communication. 

"John Marshall is writing a life of General Washington 
from his papers. It is intended to come out just in time to 
influence the next presidential election. It is written there- 
fore principally with a view to electioneering purposes. But 
it will consequently be out in time to aid you with informa- 
tion, as well as to point out perversions of truth necessary to 
be rectified. 

"Think of this and agree to it, and be assured of my high 
esteem and attachment." 

To few men have been granted the ability and privi- 
lege to accomplish more for their countrymen than to 
Joel Barlow ; unfortunately the party he served left his 
memorials to the writers of the opposition and there 
have been no descendants to right the injustice done 
his record. Born in the puritanic atmosphere of Con- 
necticut in the day of extreme prejudices — a chaplain 
in the Kevolutionary army— the authorized reviser of 
''Watt's lijTnns," in Paris he became the friend, ad- 
mirer and translator of Volney; a writer of poetic 
squibs and editor of a Yankee newspaper— one of the 
''FTartford wits," in Europe his political writings in 
favor of the French Eevolution brought him immense 
renown in both England and France; an unwitting 
agent of the unfortunate Scioto Land Company's 
scheme— he became minister of the United States to 



Bacon-Foster: The Story of K alar a nut. 104 

France and special envoy to settle difficulties in Algiers, 
where at great personal risk by skilful diplomacy he 
secured a treaty and the release of more than one hun- 
dred American sailors held in captivity by the Dey of 
the country. By sagacious business investments he 
had amassed quite a respectable fortune in France and 
was thus enabled to assist many men of genius, one 
among the number being Robert Fulton to whom he 
gave a home during his seven years ' residence in Paris, 
lavishing upon his ''much inventing and life endearing 
toot" a father's affection. To Fulton he dedicated and 
gave his life work— the epic poem, ''Cohuiibiad. " 
Fulton in turn painted for it the portrait for frontis- 
piece under which he inscribed: — 

' ' The warrior 's name, 
Tho' pealed and chimed on all the tongues of fame, 
Sounds less harmonious to the grateful mind 
Than his who fashions and improves mankind." 

He also supervised the elegant illustrations made in 
London by Smirke and engraved by masters of the art. 
The work when produced in Philadelphia in 1807 was 
the finest example of typographical art, that had been 
produced in America ; it made a sensation but has been 
all but forgotten; of Barlow's writings, political and 
poetical, he is only remembered by his merry ''Hasty 
Pudding." 

Classic nomenclature was all the vogue at that time, 
so after some deliberation the place was called 
"Kalorama" (spelt with a "C")— "Fine View." It 
at once became and for more than a century continued 
to be the resort of all that was choicest in American 
society and the Mecca of foreign travellers and visitors. 
Seldom were the guest chambers unoccupied. 

The early years of the nineteenth century were try- 
ing ones for the new Democratic-Pepublican policy of 



I05 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

peaceful neutrality, when ''England seemed to have 
become a den of pirates and France a nest of thieves"; 
the Chesapeake outrage was in every mind and on 
every tongue, but without army or navy to enforce 
respect what could be done? Many and long were the 
councils around the library fire or on the veranda at 
Kalorama when President, Secretary of State and host 
wrestled with the knotty international problems, often 
with the sympathetic British envoy, Erskine, or the 
sarcastic Minister of the most incomprehensible 
French Emperor, present. It is safe to assert that no 
political issue of that time was ever decided without 
the expressed opinion of Joel Barlow, whose long resi- 
dence abroad had familiarized him with French and 
English conditions. It has however been surmised that 
Jefferson's favorite ''Embargo Act" never met his 
unqualified approval. 

In the intervals of political discussion Jefferson and 
Barlow made plans for a national imiversity to be 
located in the nation's capital city; the bill therefor 
was presented to Congress, but died in a committee 
room. Mrs. Barlow— a fine woman, amiable, piquant 
and cultured— was more generally attractive than her 
reserved, dignified husband; the ladies admired her 
tasteful gowns and turbans, and sought her society. 
No entertainments could coni]iare with hers. 

Four busy years passed quickly, the "History of the 
United States" was progressing finely, the home life 
was supremely happy, Fulton's steamboats were run- 
ning on regular schedules up the Hudson. But the 
national outlook was terribly foreboding, between 
enemies abroad and at home the ship of state seemed 
about to founder in the tempest. Our minister to 
France had quitted his post in the fall of 1810, Barlow 
was the one American to undertake a mission to Napo- 



Bacon-Foster: The Stor// of Kalonima. io6 

leon to endeavor to induce him to, in fact as well as in 
words, set aside his obnoxious decrees so destructive to 
all commerce on the open seas, consent to American 
commercial intercourse and release the merchant ships 
held in French, Spanish and Dutch ports. With ex- 
treme reluctance he accepted the appointment and after 
some delays sailed with his family on the frigate ''Con- 
stitution" in August, 1811. 

Kalorama was then leased to the accomplished 
Serurier, the new minister from France, a favorite in 
society circles. We may presume the hospitable life 
continued. Mrs. Madison wrote Mrs. Barlow in No- 
vember : ' ' The French minister, M. Serurier, is still de- 
lighted with Kalorama and takes much pleasure in 
beautifying the grounds." 

Barlow did not return but sacrificed his life in his 
country's service, dying from exposure Christmas Eve, 
1812, while following Napoleon over the frozen wastes 
of Poland. In 1813 the bereaved wife returned to 
America to live in dignified retirement at Kalorama till 
her death five years later. In the National Intelli- 
gencer of June 2, 1818, we find this tribute : 

"Died, aged 62 on the eve of the 29th. of May, Mrs. Barlow, 
relict of the late Joel Barlow, Envoy Extraordinary and Min- 
ister Plenipotentiary of the United States at the Court of 
France. Mrs. Barlow was a native of Connecticut. Those 
uncommon talents which she and the family of Baldwin pos- 
sessed were highly cultivated during a long residence with her 
husband in various countries of Europe. Since the death of 
her husband she resided at his favorite seat and e.xerted her- 
self in doing good to all around her. She sustained with dig- 
nity, patience and serenity her last, long sickness. Her re- 
mains, attended by the heads of departments, foreign min- 
isters and numerous friends were on Monday ])la('('(l in the 
family mausoleum at Kalorama." 



I07 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

That the home was soon dismantled we learn from 
this advertisement in the Intelligencer for October 13: 

' ' Elegant furniture at public sale ; — Will be offered for sale 
at Kalorama a great variety of household furniture, consist- 
ing of mahogany sideboard, dining, hreakfast and tea tables, 
sofas, and chaii-s, bureaux, secretaries, prints and paint- 
ings, etc." 

President ^lonroe attended the sale and furnished 
Mrs. Hays' room with the purchases there made, pay- 
ing* about $600 for the articles. 

Probably Mrs, Barlow erected the tomb in a beau- 
tiful grove, at what is now the intersection of Massa- 
chusetts and Florida Avenues, which remained there 
until 1892. As remembered by many citizens it bore 
the following inscriptions: — 

Sacred to the Repose of the Dead 
And the Meditation of the Living 
Joel Barlow George Bomford 

Patriot, Poet, and Philosopher. Colonel of the Ordnance of the 
Lies Buried in Zarniwica United States 

Poland W^here He Died Died 25th March 1848 

24th Dec. 1812 Aet 66 Years 

Aet, 53 Years 9 Months 

Henry Baldwin Bomford His Son 
Ruth Baldwin Barlow His Wife Sept 9th 1848 

Died 29th May 1818 

Aet 62 Years Henry Baldwin 

Associate Justice of the 
Abraham Baldwin Her Brother Supreme Court 

Died a Senator in Congress Of the United States 

From Georgia Died April 21st 1844 

4th March 1807 Aet 52 Years Aet 64 Years 

His Memory Needs No Marble 
His Country is His Monument 
Her Constitution His Greatest 
Work 

Mrs. Barlow's family had consisted of her younger 
sister, Clara, who became the wife of George Bomford, 



Bacon-Foster: Tlw Story of Kalorama. io8 

an officer of great distinction in the ordnance division 
of the United States army, and Tom Barlow, a nephew 
and ward who had married and brought home from 
Paris a young French wife. Mrs. Bomford had been 
quite a belle in society. Mrs. Crowninshield thus de- 
scribed her appearance at Mrs. Madison's New Year's 
reception 1816: 

"]\[iss Baldwin, a sister of ]\Irs. Barlow, was dressed, first 
in a pretty white gown, high and much ruffled,— the ruffles 
worked, which is considered handsomer than lace — and over 
it a scarlet merino dress made short above the ruffles of her 
gown, crossed before and behind about the waist and short 
sleeves; it looked very tasty, trimmed with merino trimming 
and fringe. A black velvet hat, turned up in front with a 
large bunch of black feathers. ' ' 

Soon after occurred her marriage to the handsome 
colonel, a widower with four children. 

About 1818, Mrs. Wilson, who had been the wife of 
Theobald Wolfe Tone the Irish patriot, the hero of the 
insurrection of 1798 and whom the Barlows had known 
in the early days in Paris, now widowed for the second 
time and seeking a home in America, was invited to 
come to Kalorama. She accepted the invitation and 
the west wing was built for her occupancy. Its con- 
struction was peculiar in that it only contained two 
very large apartments with staii-ways both in front and 
in rear. Here she spent several years, dying in 
Georgetown in 1848. Her only son became an officer 
in the United States army. He had received a mili- 
tary education at St. Cyr as a ward of the French Re- 
public and had served under Napoleon. Upon the re- 
turn of the Bourbons to power he had not considered 
France a desirable place of residence. 

Joel Barlow, who had no childi-on of his own, had 



lOQ Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 

adopted two orphan nephews, Thomas and Stephen 
Barlow. His will made before his departure for 
Algiers was in favor of his beloved wife. She divided 
her estate between the two nephews-at-law and her 
sisters, Clara Bomford and Sally French. Kalorama 
was devised to Tom Barlow as were the library and 
papers; its furnishings were to be divided between 
Tom Barlow and Clara Bomford. In the will are many 
bequests, among them five hundi'ed dollars annually 
for the education of poor blacks in Washington, three 
hundred dollars to be annually distributed in charity. 

"And I do also order and direct that the said Tom J-Jarlow, 
or whoever may be entitled to the estate of Kalorama, to con- 
vey to such religious society as I shall by any future codicil 
name and point out, one acre of ground ... to include the 
vault now built thereon, as a burial ground for ever, and I 
do order and direct my executors to provide out of my estate 
an annual fund of twenty dollars for keeping in repair any 
fence which may be erected around the same, and the sum 
of ten dollars to keep said vault in repair." 

The executors were George Bomford, Henry Bald- 
win, Thomas and Stephen Barlow, Her brother Henry 
Baldwin, then a representative in Congress, soon 
bought the property from Thomas Barlow and im- 
mediately transferred it to Colonel Bomford who oc- 
cupied it for nearly thirty years. 

Mrs. ^largaret Bayard Smith in her letters recently 
pulilished repeatedly referred to the ladies of Kalo- 
rama, always in terms of admiration and atfection. In 
a letter written in January, 1817, she tells of a large 
party given by her in which 

"Mrs. Barlow seemed about as anxious as it it had Ixmmi Ikt 
own party, and wished me to make use of her servants and 
everything in her house which could add to the elegance of 



Bacon-Foster : The Stor/j of Kdloranid. no 

the party. I accepted but a small portion of what she offered. 
The kind Mrs. Bomford came earl}- in the morning and as- 
sisted in all the arrangements." 

Ten years later she wrote, "On Christmas we were 
very happy as well as gay. Dear Mrs. Bomford and 
all her family came early in the morning and staid 
until late at night." Again: ''Whatever she [Mrs. 
Bomford] does is with her whole lieart, in private kind- 
ness and friendship she is equally zealous. I do love 
her and so does every one. ' ' 

Colonel and Mrs. Bomford were people of high cul- 
ture and well sustained the social reputation of 
Kalorama. Mrs. Bomford was an enthusiastic florist. 
In her garden was one of the choicest collections of 
rare trees and plants to be found in America, of which 
today there remains only the dying empress tree. 
Friends had brought contributions from distant lands, 
an ivy from Melrose Abbey clambered over the por- 
tico, orchids from the tropics blossomed among the then 
rare palms in the conservatories, a sago palm which the 
Botanic Garden acquired from her attracted crowds to 
see its blooming in 1874, the first sugar beets grew 
among her vegetables. 

Col. Bomford was an engineer of great merit. He 
was the inventor of the "Columbiad," a gun so called 
in honor of Barlow's great epic poem, which was used 
in the ordnance till after the Civil War. He invested 
heavily and disastrously in Washington city lots. Gen- 
eral Cullora thus refers to this gallant officer: 

"To tlu' skill and inventive talent of this iiiv;ilual)le officer 
the country was largely indebted preceding and during the 
war of 1812-15, he being almost the only one well informed 
in the manufacture of ordnance and ordnance stores. At the 
New York depot he established work shops in which gun- 



1 1 I Uicords of the Columbia Historical Society. 

carriage's were constructed, small arms repaired, and all kinds 
of pyroteehny fabricated." 

He was the iirst to hold the office of Chief of Ord- 
nance in the United States army. 

The three brothers of these ladies were also men of 
national renown ; the eldest, Abraham Baldwin, the in- 
timate friend and associate of Joel Barlow, a revolu- 
tionary patriot, went early to Georg^ia, was one of the 
founders of her state university, its first president, was 
a member of the national constitutional convention and 
for several terms, senator in Congress. He now has 
no memorial in Washington. Another, Dudley, re- 
mained in Connecticut and became a famous lawyer; 
while Henry, also a lawyer, went to western Pennsyl- 
vania, served two terms in the national House of 
Representatives, carried the state for General Jackson 
and was by him appointed Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States. "\ATiile in the 
House he had been chairman of the committee that had 
reported the ''Missouri Compromise." His son Henry 
went to Tennessee and became the law partner of John 
Bell, "the last of the "Whigs." His sons Henry and 
William D. were the pioneer patent attorneys so well 
known in modern Washington where the latter still 
ably sustains the professional reputation of the family. 

In 1819 the Prussian minister. Baron Von Greuhm, 
was a tenant at Kalorama. He had been smitten with 
the charms of a pretty governess in Governor Middle- 
ton's family and made her his wife. The ladies hardly 
knew whether to accept her socially, but she let it be 
known that her 'Match string" was out for all Wash- 
ington citizens. 

In the early part of President Monroe's administra- 
tion there was a decided lack of harmony in society 



Bacon-F outer : The Stur/j of Kaloratiia. II2 

circles, so perhaps in the lofty apartments of Kalorama, 
heated only by open fires, there may have been several 
varieties of chill for the pretty and ambitious hostess. 
On the night of :\rarch 23, 1820, the presses of the 
National Intelligencer were halted for the insertion of 
a postscript announcing the death of the popular hero, 
Commodore Decatur: 

"Mourn Columbia! for one of thy brightest stars is set — a 
Son without fear and without reproach — in the freshness of 
his fame — in the prime of his usefulness — has descended into 
the tomb." 

The distracted widow l)egged of Colonel Bomford, a 
devoted personal friend, the privilege of the use of the 
Barlow vault, which was cordially granted. To again 
quote from the Intelligencer: ''Since the foundations 
of the city were laid perhaps no such assemblage of 
citizens and strangers, on such an occasion has been 
seen," Escorted by marines and sailors the sad 
cortege passed through the fields to the modest tomb 
secluded in the grove on the banks of romantic Hock 
Creek followed by the President, all official Washington 
and a vast concourse of citizens, the minute guns of 
the distant Navy Yard punctuating the measures of 
the funeral dirges. 

Finding the associations of the home overpowering 
Mrs. Decatur accepted the hospitality of Kalorama and 
with the Commodore's nieces, the Misses McKnight, 
resided for a time in the west wing, leading there a 
life of austere seclusion not entirely to the taste of 
the young ladies. After twenty-six years the body of 
Commodore Decatur was removed to St. Peter's church 
yard in Philadelphia, where it now reposes beneath 
a l)eautiful memorial erected by the citizens of that 
city. 

In 1824 the venerable ^Marfpiis de Lafayette visited 



113 Ricurds of the Columbia Historical Society. 

Washington. ]\[rs. Bomford had known him familiarly 
in Paris. Mrs. Seaton has recorded her pleasure in 
receiving an invitation to spend an evening "en 
famille" with the distinguished giiest at Kalorama. 

Colonel Bomford had many Imsiness enterprises out- 
side his duties as Chief of Ordnance in the army. He 
had a large flouring mill in Geoi-getown which was de- 
stroyed by fire in 18-14. There was much competition 
hereabouts then in grist milling. The field was clear 
for cotton mills which were prospering elsewhere, so 
he constructed an immense water wheel and erected a 
four story building on the site in which he placed three 
thousand spindles and one hundred looms. The mill 
provided employment for more than one hundred men 
and women. The success of the enterprise did not 
repay the outlay; although the city of Georgetown had 
assisted by remitting all taxes he found himself seri- 
ously embarrassed. In the settlement Kalorama was 
sacrificed. It is said he never recovered from his re- 
verses, but died broken hearted. The family resided 
for a time on I Street in the house still to be seen in 
the rear of the Kiggs' mansion. !\rrs. Bomford finally 
went with her only daughter to Portland, Maine. 

The estate at that time embraced ninety-one acres 
and extended from Woodley Lane and Rock Creek to 
Florida Avenue, crossing the creek at P Street. It was 
bought in 1846 by Thomas P. Lovett as trustee for his 
mother, Mrs. Charles Fletcher; the price paid was 
$25,000— not a great advance from the $14,000 paid by 
Barlow forty years before. Her descendants still re- 
tain holdings in the property. The acre about the 
tomb was reserved from the sale, but heirs not related 
to the original owners in some way evaded the prohibi- 
tion, removed the sacred dust to Pock Creek Cemetery, 



Bacon-Foster : The Storij of Kdloraiiia. 114 

demolished what should have only been replaced by a 
memorial chapel and sold the beautiful lot— not a tree 
remaining of the once fine grove. 

The Lovett family proved themselves worthy suc- 
cessors of the brilliant men and women that had pre- 
ceded them, and the cultured, hospitable life continued. 
Mr. Thomas Lovett accompanied Minister Marsh to 
Constantinople in 1(S50 as an attache of the legation. 
This perhaps led to introductions into all the foreign 
legations in Washington whose inmates were always 
on terms of pleasant intimacy with the family in the 
most charming countiy residence in the District. Mr. 
Fletcher was a man of erudition and extremely 
progressive, actively interested in many public pro- 
jects. He numbered among his friends most of the 
prominent men of his day in official life. 

Memories of romances cling around historic homes 
as ivy to the walls. Many a pretty tale might be told 
with Kalorama for a setting. The wooing of one of 
the young men of the family is typical and recalls some 
historic characters. The Empress Maria Theresa of 
Austria was greatly interested in the struggle of the 
American colonists for independence. When it had 
been achieved she despatched a trusted officer, Baron 
de Belen of Belgium, to America with her personal con- 
gratulations to General Washington. The Baron was 
so pleased with the country and people that he re- 
mained permanently, selecting York, Pa., for a home. 
His granddaughter, a beautiful young girl, gentle and 
winsome, was educated in the Georgetown convent, as 
were the daughters of many notable families of the past 
generation. Considering themselves still Belgians, 
her guardians placed her in charge of Colonel Beaulieu, 
then representing the Belgian government in America. 



115 lit'curds of the Colitiiibia Historical Society. 

At an eveuiug eiitertaiiiment at the legation young Mr. 
George Lovett met Miss Caroline. The fate of both 
was at once decided and soon after another fair face 
was added to the group on the Heights. And there was 
the infatuation of the elderly bachelor, Dr. Bull, for 
the still attractive Mrs. Barlow with the interference of 
well-meaning but practical relatives who prevented the 
marriage, but broke thereby the heart of the gentle 
lady. The Russian Minister, Baron Bodisco, so long 
resident in Georgetown and whose name is remembered 
as the prince who wooed and won the modest maiden, 
was a frequent visitor at Kalorama. Among the treas- 
ures of the family is an oil painting of the old mansion 
done by Miss Lovett with his assistance. Neither did 
army and navy men fail to seek the generous hospi- 
tality, and with the usual result. Miss Emma Lovett 
was married to Commodore Samuel Livingston Breese 
in old St. John's in 1855. The bride was so distressed 
by her husband's immediate assignment to sea duty 
that Secretary Dobbin as a gift presented her with 
permission to join him on the flag ship in the Medi- 
terranean. This was, we may be sure, a most acceptable 
present. Commodore Breese was made Bear Admiral 
by the act of 1862 and was commandant of the Brooklyn 
Navy Yard during the Civil War. One of the sisters 
married Captain Lansing of the army; another, Medi- 
cal Director George jMaulsby of the navy. 

Kalornina had never been so beautiful as it was in 
the spring of 1861. The oaks planted by Joel Barlow 
along the avenue which wound around the hillside to 
the plain thence to the entrance lodge at P Street had 
grown till tlieir boughs interlaced; the trees about the 
little Fulton summer house on the bluff towered high; 
the fine Pi/nis jnpniiirn hedge formed an impervious 



Bacon-Foster: The Story of Kalorama. Ii6 

wall of green around the lawn where the boxwood had 
grown into trees, at every turn was some rare tree or 
shrub, while in the formal garden at the east— carefully 
kept as it had been left by Mrs. Bomford— was such 
a collection of growth and bloom as was not duplicated 
elsewhere in the district. The mansion with its long 
picturesque front, the wings embracing as it were the 
conservatories built on the front of the old house, 
painted in the old time yellow coloring, was completely 
embowered in a grove of noble forest trees; through 
vistas cut in the foliage views of the river and city from 
Georgetown to the Capitol and even far Alexandria 
could be had. Crocus, daffodils and jonquils blos- 
somed on the greensward among the dandelion stars ; 
great clusters of wistaria and pawlonia blooms hung 
heavily from vine and tree ; the air was filled with the 
fragrance of blooming lilac, honeysuckle and magnolia. 
In the wooded parts of the estate the slopes were 
carpeted with violets and arbutus, the red-bud and 
dogwood brightened the background, the snowy banner 
of the ash swayed in each gentle breeze. 

On a day in April the gentlemen of the family re- 
turned from the city greatly excited, Fort Sumter had 
been attacked and had surrendered — a great civil war 
was inevitable. Soon came the call for troops and 
regiments of soldiers came pouring into Washington to 
be encamped on the hills around the city. Lossing 
mentions the camp and drill ground on the level field 
of Kalorama, along the creek. 

The guns fired that hot Sunday afternoon in August 
at Manassas wei'e heaixl dui-ing the sennce being con- 
ducted by the regimental chaplain in the summer house. 
Has the reader ever listened to the faint l)ooming of 
guns from a distant battle field? To n civilian the 



117 liicurds of the Columbia Historical Society. 

sound briugs a benumbing sensation of horror never 
to be forgotten. It early became evident that a 
hospital for the isolation of contagious cases would be 
required. For such use no locality possessed the ad- 
vantages of Kalorama. So the government leased the 
place, while the family removed to Philadelphia. 

The hospital tents and buildings were demolished 
when the army was disbanded in the fall of 1865. The 
officers in charge proposed to give a fine farewell ball 
on Christmas Eve in the mansion. Unfortunately for 
their plans, through a defective stove pipe a fire was 
started which completely gutted the east wing. No 
report was made to the absent owners of the fire or 
evacuation. They by merest chance heard that strag- 
glers had full possession and were destroying what the 
army had spared. Mr. Thomas Lovett appeared upon 
the scene in time to rescue an Aztec idol which a negro 
was ignominiously dragging down the hill by a rope 
about its neck. It was a cherished relic, having been 
brought from Mexico by Captain Lansing. It and the 
stone cannon balls brought from Malta by Admiral 
Breese, and which had been placed on the posts of the 
entrance gate, are now in the Lovett Free Library at 
Mt. Airy, Philadelphia. Many years elapsed before 
settlement was made by the government for rent or 
damages. 

The mansion was elegantly rebuilt in 1872 by Mr. 
George I^ovett. For the supports of the porte-cochere 
he used handsome iron pillars that had once done duty 
at the armory at Harper's Ferry. 

In 1875 Mr. Lovett married for the second time, the 
lady being a daughter of Admiral Charles S. Boggs of 
"Varuna" fame. She was also a descendant of a 
signer of the Declaration of Independence and a grand- 
niece of Captain James Lawrence of the Na\^'; thus 



Bacon-Foster: The Storij of Kalorama. ii8 

another notable famil}^ became associated with Kalo- 
rama. It was no longer a country place; by the rapid 
growth of the city after the war it had become subur- 
ban. It was still beautiful, though much changed and 
no tour of Washington was complete that did not in- 
clude a drive through the grounds. This was a favorite 
drive with General Grant, who greatly enjoyed the 
views from its outlooks. Mr. James G. Blaine would 
have had a residence for the President located at this 
point— in fact a negotiation for the purchase had com- 
menced, to be tragically interrupted by the assassina- 
tion of the President. 

Mr. Lovett died in 1882. Seven years later the still 
attractive mansion was abandoned and torn away in 
order that city lots might be made to correspond with 
the levels of the intersecting streets. The elegant 
modern residence built by Mr. Wm. A. Mearns very 
nearly occupies the site of the old house. 

Memories of great men who served their country 
ably and well— Scott, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, 
Barlow, Fulton, Baldwin, Bomford, Decatur and others 
of later date — with fair women, the social queens of 
their time— cling to the Kalorama of which only the 
name remains. Is it not fitting that a memorial be 
placed hereabouts to remind the returning fashion 
somewhat of the brilliant past? 



LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 



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